The all-wheel drive version of the Toyota Prius introduced last week at the LA Auto Show earns an astoundingly good EPA fuel economy rating of 50 mpg combined—nearly as good as the 52 mpg earned by much of the Prius lineup (LE, XLE and Limited). But the system isn’t nearly as capable as the one you might encounter in Toyota’s... Toyota Prius AWD-e: Going light on the rear motor helps it hit 50 mpg
The all-wheel drive version of the Toyota Prius introduced last week at the LA Auto Show earns an astoundingly good EPA fuel economy rating of 50 mpg combined—nearly as good as the 52 mpg earned by much of the Prius lineup (LE, XLE and Limited). But the system isn’t nearly as capable as the one you might encounter in Toyota’s... 
Toyota continues to stay the course with nickel-metal hydride battery cells for many of its hybrid vehicles, even though most other hybrid vehicles from other brands have moved on to using lithium-ion cells exclusively. According to Prius chief engineer Shoichi Kaneko, in an interview this past week at the LA Auto Show, most of Toyota’s... 
Some executives at major automakers continue to insist that electric cars remain years away from becoming a mainstream reality—and that it’s harder to sell them than traditional vehicles with gas tanks and tailpipes. Volkswagen of America’s new CEO, Scott Keogh, is most definitely not one of them. In a round-table interview with... 
One key specification in the 2020 Kia Soul EV that was revealed at the LA Auto Show this week was a bit unexpected: its inclusion of a large, 64-kwh battery pack. That leaves two vehicles—the Soul EV and the 2019 Kia Niro EV—with the same big battery. And both will be arriving at U.S. dealerships in the first quarter of 2019. Based on... 
At the LA Auto Show, Kia has provided some long-awaited U.S. market details for the Niro EV. Among the most important ones: With a large 64-kwh battery pack, it will offer an EPA-rated range of 239 miles. The Niro, which Kia describes as a “multi-function crossover format,” is built on a dedicated green-vehicle platform shared with the... 
At the LA Auto Show, Kia revealed a completely new generation of its Soul—including, once again, an all-electric Kia Soul EV that makes overtures to urbanites who need box-on-wheels utility, affordability, parking ease, and some design flair but also want an electric car. The Soul EV is, once again, front-wheel drive, but its electric motor... 
The four-door e-Tron GT concept that Audi introduced Wednesday at the 2018 LA Auto Show is “very, very, very, very, very close to production.” Those are the words of Audi design boss Marc Lichte, not ours. The design study will earn the distinction of being the first battery-powered Audi Sport model when it makes its debut as a... 
With the introduction of a 50-mile-per-gallon Corolla Hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Toyota is keeping true to a mission it undertook a long time ago: democratizing hybrid technology, and making it mainstream. The carmaker has long aimed to deploy its hybrid system aggressively into pretty much every product in their lineup. Suddenly within... 
Mazda has revealed its 2019 Mazda 3 compact car, in new-generation form, at the 2018 LA Auto Show. It’s not surprising, given the brand’s go-it-alone strategy this decade, that the new ‘3’ appears to take a different path than key global compact-car rivals in nearly every respect, ranging from design to driving traits to...